The news that Xiao Ruxun was conferred the title of Marquis Zhennan and that he was stationed in Myanmar soon spread among the small countries in Southeast Asia and the Ming Army in Myanmar. Each of the small countries had their own thoughts. Not to mention the public, the thoughts of the troops in the Ming Army were quite complicated.
Xiao Ruxun's position in the local troops in Daming was very special.
From the 20th year of Wanli, Xiao Ruxun stood out from the local military family in Ningxia. After quelling Bo Bai's rebellion in Ningxia, Xiao Ruxun basically became the head of the troops in Ningxia Town. He also served as the commander-in-chief of the Ningxia Army for a time. However, he was soon transferred to the battlefield in Korea. He fought a bloody battle with the Japanese pirates who had ravaged the hinterland in the southeast of Daming for several months. The Japanese were torn apart and destroyed 200,000 of their troops, which was a great achievement.
Then, not long after, he was transferred to the battlefield in Myanmar. He destroyed the disgusting country that had been harassing the southern border of Daming for more than a decade like sticky candy. He restored the prestige of Daming in Southeast Asia to the era of Zheng He's voyages to the West. Not only did he expand the territory, but he also greatly increased the prestige of Daming, allowing Daming to show its power. More than 20 small countries paid tribute again and joined the tributary system of Daming again.
These were all obvious contributions and achievements. If these were the representatives of prestige, then the cooperation between Xiao Ruxun and the troops was the real relationship.
Where there were people, there would be Jianghu. Where there were officials, there would be fights. Where there were soldiers, there would be mountains. This was a truth that would never change.
As a general born and raised in a military family in the northwest, Xiao Ruxun was, of course, a border general of the Ningxia Town faction. To expand it, he belonged to the Northern Army, belonging to the Nine-Sided System. He belonged to different mountains and different factions than the non-Nine-sided System troops.
In the Great Ming Dynasty's army, which was full of factions, it was a very difficult thing to do. Of course, it was not impossible, but if one did not have deep connections and strength, it would be wishful thinking. And for Xiao Ruxun, it was wishful thinking from the beginning.
When he first commanded troops to fight, he was only 23 years old. He only had the achievements of quelling the rebellion in Ningxia. He had the halo of using gunpowder to overturn the walls of Ningxia. The army called Xiao Ruxun the Gunpowder General. In private, some people jokingly called Xiao Ruxun the Gunpowder Madman, a madman who could not live without gunpowder.
In addition, Xiao Ruxun was a young boy who talked and did not do things well. Who would have thought that the Liaodong, Shandong, Datong, Xuan Fu, and Nanbing would pay attention to him? They thought that this was an impossible task, but who would have thought that Xiao Ruxun would use three months to establish his prestige before the war? He solved the problem for Wu Weizhong, won the morale of the Nanbing, beat Li Rusong, and deterred the other troops.
In the first battle, Pyongyang wiped out tens of thousands of Wokou pirates, establishing its initial prestige. In the second battle, in the canyon, they didn't use gunpowder and only used cold weapons. Tens of thousands of heads were the fruits of the battle. In the third battle, Kai City, and the fourth battle, Seoul. In just a month's time, the Wokou's half a year's worth of battle gains were gone. Seventy to eighty thousand heads were piled up like a mountain, establishing Xiao Ruxun's prestige incomparably firm.
Of course, in addition to prestige, Xiao Ruxun's credibility was also recognized by the other troops.
It was easy for a mighty general to gain the fear of soldiers. He just had to kill more people, but it was difficult to gain the respect of soldiers. It was even more difficult for generals from different places to gain the respect of soldiers from other places. For example, Xiao Ruxun, who was from Ningxia, wanted to gain the respect of the Shandong spearmen. How could he do it? They were separated by thousands of miles. You don't know me, and I don't know you. Why should I respect you?
Xiao Ruxun could do it. He was impartial and did not deliberately favor any of the troops. He gave all the troops the same opportunity to fight, and the results of the battles were basically equally distributed. He tried his best to be fair. When his own troops achieved too much, he was willing to stay behind and lead the troops of other factions to earn military merits. How rare was it to have such a commander?
Not to mention anything else, just the troops that he had personally trained, even if he did not consider other factors, were the best in terms of familiarity and cooperation. On the battlefield, there were no telephones or telegrams. It all depended on the personal prestige of the general and the command of the war drum. If the soldiers were familiar with the general, they would know what to do when the general's drum sounded. The cooperation between them was very good, and they were as reliable as the general's arm.
Objectively speaking, this was the reason why the direct troops were more effective than the collateral troops.
However, Xiao Ruxun was different. He could lead the direct troops to victory, and he could also lead the collateral troops to victory. The military discipline that restrained the direct troops was also very strong. He did not allow the direct troops to provoke other troops. He knew that this would give the direct troops a bad impression, but he still did it. He tried his best to maintain the balance between the troops. If there was an irreconcilable situation, he would drag them out to fight. After a victory, all conflicts would be resolved.
After obtaining military merits and rewards, he would only take what he deserved and distribute the rest to his subordinates. He would even specially give a large portion to his subordinates. He tried his best to take care of every soldier who had contributed. More importantly, he knew how to care for others and consider the actual situation. For example, when the southern troops were fighting in North Korea, they were not used to the harsh cold of North Korea. Their winter clothes were too thin, and it was difficult for them to endure the cold. Xiao Ruxun did not mock the southern troops, and directly gave them double winter clothes to resist the cold. Thus, he gained the collective support of the southern troops.
The northern troops and the southern troops were not used to each other's staple food, so Xiao Ruxun tried his best to make hometown food for the various troops during the holidays. It did not matter if it was authentic or not. With this kind of heart, he was the only general in Daming. He made pancakes for the northern troops and soup noodles for the southern troops. Regardless of how well he did it, just this kind of heart was felt by most of the defeated soldiers.
If you sincerely cared for the troops under you, the soldiers could feel it. In a precarious situation on the battlefield, a strong and benevolent general was the most popular. If you cared for the soldiers, the soldiers would be willing to fight to the death for you. The soldiers did not have any sense of patriotism, did not have any great principles, and there was no political and ideological education now. What were they fighting for? Basically, it was for the sake of living, fighting for the sake of living. Survival was the number one priority. Therefore, there were many deserters, and their combat strength was weak. But under Xiao Ruxun's command, these soldiers were willing to fight to the death, willing to risk their lives for Xiao Ruxun.
Did you think it was some noble sentiment? It was not! It was because Xiao Ruxun had shown kindness to these soldiers, making them feel that they had been blessed and taken care of. They were grateful and trusted Xiao Ruxun, so they were willing to fight to the death for Xiao Ruxun. How could they have so many noble sentiments? How could they have so much righteousness? Did you expect the illiterate soldiers to understand the righteousness of the country and the nation?
Otherwise, why were the emperors always so afraid of generals?
It was very simple. If a prestigious general made a call, the soldiers would really dare to launch a counterattack against the emperor. They would be willing to be cut to pieces to pull the emperor down from his horse. This was definitely not a joke! In the current era without political and ideological education, it was very easy for the soldiers to become the private soldiers of prestigious generals. The soldiers did not care who the emperor was. At the beginning of the country, they would still be afraid, but after a long time, who would care whether you were the emperor or not? If they did not have a good life, they would use you as an example!
This situation was especially obvious before the Song Dynasty. Even after the Song Dynasty, the army was suppressed, but the nature of the army was like this. No matter how much you suppressed it, in troubled times, the army was still swift and fierce. It was still the foundation of political power. So whether it was Wang Xijue, Zhang Wei, Zhao Zhigao, or Shi Xing, none of them could accept the existence of 30,000 soldiers who had been through hundreds of battles completely becoming Xiao Ruxun's private soldiers.
If these 30,000 soldiers were used well, with Xiao Ruxun's prestige, with a call, these 30,000 soldiers would immediately follow him north to attack cities and seize territory. No one knew better than the civil officials how weak the garrisons in Jiangnan were, and no one was not worried that Xiao Ruxun's prestige among the southern soldiers would be able to summon the Wolf Soldiers of the south to turn against him, and then instantly take over all of Jiangnan, confront the court from the north to the south, and then send troops on a northern expedition.
There was no other reason than that the army was so violent and simple.
So when the soldiers learned that Xiao Ruxun was kept in Burma and could not return to the Central Plains, and that they were about to leave Xiao Ruxun and return to the Central Plains, they had a very serious rebellious mentality. They were very unhappy with the treatment that Xiao Ruxun had suffered, which was almost equivalent to exile. The main generals such as the Ma family, Deng Zilong, Liu Da, and the others all felt injustice for Xiao Ruxun, and wanted to submit a petition to the court for justice for Xiao Ruxun. Even a large number of young officers in Xiao Ruxun's Ningxia headquarters supported Xiao Ruxun to rebel against the court.
Xiao Ruxun did not know whether to laugh or cry. He comforted these soldiers with kind words, saying that this was his expectation and his request, and had nothing to do with the court. He wanted to stay here to guard the border for the court and Daming a safe and peaceful environment for the people. This was his idea, and he hoped that everyone would help him. He also hoped that they would not submit a petition to the court, otherwise, not only would his situation be more difficult, but the generals who submitted the petition would also be treated unfairly.
Because the court would think that Xiao Ruxun had bought the hearts of the people in the army and formed a clique for private interests, which would not be good.
After the generals realized the seriousness of the problem, they all reluctantly gave up. But although they gave up, Xiao Ruxun clearly saw the grievance and dissatisfaction in their hearts, especially Liu Da and Deng Zilong, who had almost developed to the point of hatred for those civil officials.
For this reason, Xiao Ruxun specially invited these two generals who had great prestige in the southern army system to have a meal. He explained some principles to them, told them to be low-key and never go against the court's order, and so on. Although they were wronged, it was safe. The two veteran generals reluctantly agreed and said that if Xiao Ruxun needed anything in the future, they would be in Guangdong and Sichuan respectively. These two local tyrants would definitely give enough help to Xiao Ruxun.
They brought along the Sichuan and Guangdong soldiers and reluctantly left Myanmar.
The southern generals were mostly reluctant to part with Xiao Ruxun. The southern soldiers, who were born out of the system of Qi Jiguang and Yu Dayou, were always in the same boat with the northern generals. Only Xiao Ruxun was very happy with them. Once they left, they did not know which d * mned general they would be assigned to do d * mned things. They were very unhappy and very reluctant to leave General Xiao's command. They missed General Xiao's chili and big pancakes even more.
Xiao Ruxun comforted them with kind words, telling them to do things honestly, be low-key, not disobey their superiors, and not to contradict the generals. Not everyone could be like him and laugh it off. Be careful not to make things difficult for them.
The southern soldiers reluctantly bid farewell to the General they acknowledged.
The Wolf Soldiers recommended their leaders to Xiao Ruxun's tent to bid farewell to Xiao Ruxun. They said that only Xiao Ruxun treated them as his own people. The others all saw them as barbarians. Not to mention other things, the barbarians were illiterate and did not know how to speak. In the future, if General Xiao still needed their help, if they could continue to fight together, they would definitely go through water and tread on fire for General Xiao. Not to mention fighting Japanese pirates or Myanmar barbarians, even if it was a rebellion, they would hang their heads on their waistbands and go with General Xiao!
Xiao Ruxun didn't know whether to laugh or cry as she sent the simple and honest wolf soldiers onto the ship, and watched them leave. These were Zhuang and Miao soldiers, they didn't understand the principles of the Han people, they didn't understand the Han people's writing and language, they didn't understand the Han people's rules, but they understood loyalty and gratitude. Whoever treated them well, they would pour their hearts and lungs out to that person. They even said something like rebelling, it was clear that they were very dissatisfied with the majority.
Finally, there were more than 20 boys from the Ma family, who Ma Gui had entrusted to him. Xiao Ruxun asked them if they also wanted to return to Ma Gui's side with the fleet, but they all shook their heads.
"Uncle entrusted us to the General. The General is our sky. If the General wants us to go east, we will not go west. If the General wants us to go south, we will not go north. We will not go back to Myanmar in the future. If the General is in Myanmar, we will follow him in Myanmar. No matter where we go, even if we have to climb a mountain of swords or dive into a sea of fire, we are not surnamed Ma!"
Ma Hu said so.
These unyielding men really moved Xiao Ruxun a little. Xiao Ruxun could be said to have a deep understanding of what it meant to be a heartless man, a heartless man who was a scholar.
Of course, nothing was absolute. Yuan Huang, an elite scholar, gave up his official position in the imperial court and became the only scholar advisor of Xiao Ruxun. He stayed in the barren land of Myanmar and wrote to his family in his hometown in Wujiang County, asking them to move south to Myanmar, give up their home in Wujiang County, and settle in Myanmar. He also wrote to a group of students and friends in Zhejiang, inviting them to Myanmar to help Xiao Ruxun build Myanmar. Although he did not know if anyone was willing to come, Yuan Huang had done everything he could.
Xiao Ruxun was very moved by this and tried to persuade Yuan Huang not to do this. He was already 60 years old, but he still had to leave his hometown, which really made him feel sorry.
Yuan Huang laughed and said that his ancestor had been forced to leave his hometown and come to Wujiang County because he had offended Zhu Di in the Jingnan War. Wujiang was not his hometown, so it did not matter if he left. Although Myanmar was poor, Yuan Huang could see that Xiao Ruxun would definitely develop Myanmar into a rich paradise on earth.
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